Partner Spotlight: The Armored Patrol
Each month we shout about one of our incredible partners. For June, we spoke to the seasoned site owner of The Armored Patrol.
A consequence of running a hobby site, whether it’s for your favorite game or series, is that it can be difficult to find the right work-life balance. Oftentimes we spend more energy and put more value into creating content we’re passionate about. It’s why it feels more personal if that passion-created content doesn’t perform as well as we’d like it to.
Ultimately, running a successful site is about seeing what sticks with your audience, and filling a space on the web that might be lacking in content. A site that’s managed to do both is this month’s Partner Spotlight: The Armored Patrol, a World of Tanks and World of Warships site that strives to provide users with the latest news and updates on their favorite franchise.
What drove you to create your website? Did you see a gap in the market for this type of website?
“I started the website just after the former World of Tanks news blog, For The Record, closed. I couldn’t bear having my favorite blog close. The replacement website was subpar, so I took the opportunity to translate and post all the news myself. I wanted to read more news [about the game], so I did my own thing.
“I started the site with a friend, BloodSnow. He made the blog email, the blog domain and the original PayPal we used for donations. It took me 6 months of posting every day until I finally made some revenue from the website. Lately there’s been a period of abundant articles, so I can’t complain!”
How has your audience impacted your experience as a site owner/gamer?
“I have to listen to the audience. I constantly make polls to consult them on various topics and issues (especially if I think that something I do might upset them). You have to have a good moral compass. Since the World of Tanks community has a small vocal minority that is very hard to satisfy, in my opinion, [there are] tons of opinions and arguments. From every country.”
What’s one of your favourite aspects of managing your website?
“I like talking to my blog authors, consulting them for their opinion. They do a great job and save me a great deal of time to focus on other things – so they’re rewarded well with a big percentage of the site revenue. I love when the ad revenue arrives each month, too. And December is great too – if there’s lots of news, you can make a fortune from ads.”
What are you most proud of in regards to your website?
“I’m happy that the site is still going strong after 9 years. The Armored Patrol has been online since March 2015. I tried a ton of things in the past that did not work, I had a personal blog (2011), a The Simpsons forum in Romanian (2012-13), and even a Club Penguin news blog in my language when I was 11 (2009).
“A big milestone for me was 2020. Due to having time off university, I finally implemented self-hosting and experimented with several ad services (Google Ads, Monumetric) before choosing Publisher Collective.”
Do you have any advice for website owners who are just starting out?
“Think less, do more. Just start and post a lot. You’ll improve along the way. Don’t be a perfectionist at all, just do the work at first. Post at least an article every day if possible. Content is king. Our role as a content creator is to post meaningful content that we find inspiring. So never stop working – but implement [some kind of] work-life balance so you enjoy posting on your blog.
“[The Armored Patrol] was a hobby, but I treated it seriously – because it was my passion and I was obsessed – and also obsessed with being the best, outcompeting my rivals at the time. I was always thinking about the blog in my spare time, brainstorming what to post and monitoring news from my sources to prepare what to post.
“It wasn’t easy – I wish I had posted more in the 2015-2017 period of the game – but I think I did a pretty good job. Seize the opportunity and strike the iron every day. Yes, even on weekends when possible, even when it seems like there’s no news. Hunt for meaningful articles too when you can, [and] check all your sources every day. Rare interviews or leaks are what I loved posting the most back in the day.”
For more information about all of the incredible partners we work with, check them out here. If you’re an existing partner who’d like to be featured in our Partner Spotlight, you can reach out to your Publisher Collective contact and express your interest. Want to get in on the action? Apply to become a partner here.